Late The Notebook actress Gena Rowlands left behind a portion of her fortune to her husband, Robert Forrest — but he died days after her — which led to her children going to court, Us Weekly can exclusively report.
Us obtained a petition filed by Rowlands’ children (she shares son Nick Cassavetes, daughter Zoe Cassavetes and daughter Alexandra Cassavetes with ex-husband John Cassavetes) and her stepchildren (Robert shared daughters Debra Hillard and Lynne Raushe with his ex.
Rowlands and Forrest wed in 2012. The actress died on August 14, 2024, at the age of 93. Forrest passed away 15 days later at the age of 90. Per his death certificate, Forrest died from a cardiac arrest. (On August 30, 2024, Nick –who directed his mom in 2004’s The Notebook – shared a photo of Forrest on Instagram. He wrote, “Rest well, Robert. I couldn’t have loved you more if you were my own dad…” )
In the petition, the siblings said “renowned actress” Rowlands owned a retirement account which designated Forrest as the “sole primary beneficiary” of The Gena Rowlands Trust, formed on August 4, 1989, and amended several times, once after she wed Forrest and the last being on August 17, 2018.
Per the filing, Nick and his siblings asked that an administrator be appointed to take certain steps to transfer the money to the trust, while avoiding a substantial tax bill, on the $600,000 that Rowlands left Forrest in her retirement account.
The judge signed off on the request and the case was eventually closed on August 12.
As Us previously reported, shortly before she passed, Nick revealed Rowlands had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He spoke about it during promotion for the 20th anniversary of The Notebook, which Rowlands starred in as the older version of Rachel McAdams’ character, Allie Hamilton.
In the movie, Allie battles Alzheimer’s. Nick told Entertainment Weekly in June 2024, “I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s.”
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He shared, “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
Rowlands, who was born in 1930, was previously married to the father of her three children, John Cassavetes. Rowlands and John were married from 1954 until his death in 1989, at the age of 59.
In a 2016 interview with Variety, the entertainer spoke out about her late husband. She said the favorite film she worked on with John was A Woman Under the Influence.
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Rowlands also detailed her experience working with her son, Nick, on The Notebook. “I didn’t think it would have that kind of impact. I think it was such a big hit because it was about the realization that love can last your whole life. You don’t see it depicted that way a lot. In most films you don’t get to see a story like that go from the beginning to the end with the possibility that love can be perhaps eternal.
In a separate interview in the same year, Rowlands detailed her desires in life. “The one thing I never wanted to do was to fall in love or get married or have children,” she said. “I wanted to act.”
